March Factory Orders Ticked Higher
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that factory orders rose by around 1% in the month of March.
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The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that factory orders rose by 1.1% in the month of March. This has a one-month lag, so it may not show up in any other numbers until future revisions for first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP). Bloomberg was calling for a gain of only 0.6%.
A revision was seen for February as well, with the −1.7% (contraction) being revised to a wider −1.9% level.
Wednesday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that the new orders for manufactured durable goods rose by $1.8 billion, or up 0.8%, to $230.7 billion in March. This increase marked gains for two of the prior three months but followed a drop of 3.1% in February.
Excluding transportation, these new orders decreased by 0.2%. Excluding defense, new orders decreased by a total of 1.0%.
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Transportation equipment has now been up two of the past three months. This increase was by $2.2 billion, or up by 2.9%, to $76.0 billion in March.
Other key factors were reported as follows for March:
- Shipments decreased by $1.1 billion, or 0.5%, to $237.0 billion.
- Unfilled orders fell by $1.3 billion, or 0.1%, to $1,182.5 billion.
- Inventories increased less than $0.1 billion, virtually unchanged, to $394.1 billion.
- Nondefense new orders for capital goods dropped by $0.8 billion, or 1.1%, to $71.6 billion.
Data used for the factory orders are based on a panel of approximately 4,800 reporting units, representing approximately 3,000 companies. To be more specific, the Commerce Department says this report represents roughly 61% of the total value of shipments for manufacturing establishments in the 2012 Economic Census and includes almost two-thirds of the manufacturing companies with $500 million or more in shipments in the 2012 Economic Census.
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Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.
